by James A. Bacon
Still need proof that the momentum of growth and development is shifting back to traditional downtowns? Consider this: Roughly 3,000 apartment units are under construction in the Richmond metropolitan region — and half of them are located downtown.
That gem of a factoid was buried in a Times-Dispatch article about the construction of two mid-rise buildings on the edge of Virginia Commonwealth University. A $13.6 million, seven-story structure on Grace Street, owned by the VCU Real Estate Foundation, will be used for classrooms, faculty office, media relations and retail space. A $20 million, 11-story building, developed by private investors, will have 150 apartment units open to anyone, not just students, who wants to rent them. With amenities including a fitness center, rooftop lounge and recreation room, rents will run between $920 and $1,500 per month.
The new buildings replace two older structures, one currently used by VCU and the other a seedy, one-story retail building.
The Square Apartments are significant not only for the impact they will have on the urban fabric north of VCU but the fact that, unlike so many downtown apartments, it does not rely upon historic tax credits to make the financing work. (I’m taking a leap in making that statement, but I feel safe in making it — the old structure was destroyed to make way for the new. Nothing of historic value is being preserved.)
Most apartment construction downtown consists of adaptive reuse such as the old Central National Bank building, an art deco treasure, the old Massey Energy headquarters building, and the old warehouses in Shockoe Bottom. The supply of historic buildings that can be retrofitted into apartments is rapidly dwindling. For downtown and neighboring precincts to continue growing, the market will have to be able to supply mid-rise buildings erected on tear-down lots. The Square Apartments demonstrate that such projects can get financed and built. There is no shortage of run-down properties in the Broad Street corridor with no redeeming architectural value that can be converted to mid-rises.
The Richmond real estate marketplace is turning its back on sprawl in way impossible to imagine a decade ago, when development across the region consumed land more voraciously than anywhere else in Virginia. The City of Richmond is debating the merits of mixed-use development focused on a new ballpark in Shockoe Bottom versus mixed-use development focused on a new ballpark on the Boulevard near Interstate 95. Meanwhile, much of the growth in neighboring Henrico and Chesterfield Counties consists of re-developing land at greater density. In Henrico, for instance, Gumenick Properties is recycling an 80-acre tract of lower income housing into 994 single-family houses and 1,096 apartments in a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood over the next 10 years. Meanwhile, Crosland Southeast is converting the old Cloverleaf Mall in Chesterfield into a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood that includes 350 multifamily residences.
That’s not to say that traditional suburban development — scattered cul-de-sac subdivisions and shopping centers — is dead. But the momentum has clearly shifted. The Richmond region is slowly mending itself.